State

LAS CRUCES — New Mexico State is expected to announce that its football program has found a new home.
Sun Belt Conference and school officials say both sides are scheduled Wednesday to announce that the Aggies will accept an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference in 2014. The move comes after the Western Athletic Conference gave up trying to field a football league in 2013.
New Mexico State played eight years in the WAC and its football team will play as an independent in 2013.
Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Karl Benson will hold a teleconference Wednesday and school officials will hold a news conference afterward in the Pan American Center.
The Aggies, who went 1-11 last season, have not appeared in a bowl game since 1960.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Some people may have heard of the school that's suddenly generating a bit of March Madness buzz.
Harvard.
Yep, Harvard —the school known for producing U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices and Nobel Prize winners earned its first NCAA tournament victory Thursday night with a 68-62 upset of No. 3 seed New Mexico.
Wesley Saunders scored 18 points and Laurent Rivard made five 3-pointers to give 14th-seeded Harvard (20-9) its first tournament victory in only three measly trips.
"It's unbelievable," guard Christian Webster said. "We're still in disbelief. This is as good as it gets for us right now."
He had no doubt the scene at Harvard Square was as crazy as the one inside the Crimson locker room, where noise from Harvard's postgame celebration carried down through the concourse.
The Crimson put the clamps on New Mexico's Tony Snell, holding him to nine points on 4-of-12 shooting after he dominated in the Mountain West Conference tournament. They banged inside with Lobos big men Cameron Bairstow and Alex Kirk, whose 22 points provided New Mexico's only consistent offense.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Saint Louis had no problem maneuvering around 7-foot-5 freshman Sim Bhullar and New Mexico State.
Dwayne Evans scored 24 points, Cody Ellis added 12 points and the fourth-seeded Billikens overwhelmed the Aggies 64-44 in the second round of the NCAA tournament Thursday.
Playing with a heavy heart since Rick Majerus died in December, Saint Louis reached another mark in March for its late coach. The Billikens (28-6) eclipsed the 1988-89 team's school record of 27 victories.
Evans shot 11 of 16 from the floor and finished a point shy of his career best to propel Saint Louis past Bhullar. The Billikens held Bhullar to four points, 11 rebounds and three blocks.
Bandja Sy had 17 points and nine rebounds for the 13th-seeded Aggies (24-11), who shot a miserable 28 percent. Saint Louis shot 46 percent and forced 16 turnovers.
The big man bothered the Billikens at first.
The lumbering center stayed around the rim while his other four teammates chased five players around the perimeter. The unconventional defensed allowed Bhullar to save energy and protect the paint.
Once Saint Louis solved the big man, it had no trouble on either end of the floor.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Steve Alford loves New Mexico and New Mexico loves Steve Alford.
Those simple facts made Wednesday, the eve of the second round of the NCAA tournament, as good a time as any for the Lobos to announce they've given their coach a new, 10-year contract that could be worth up to $2 million a year counting base salary and bonuses.
The deal calls for Alford to be in Albuquerque through 2023.
With the third-seeded Lobos getting ready to play No. 14 Harvard on Thursday in a West regional game, Alford's contract was the hot topic in his day-before news conference.
Alford, who was directed to Albuquerque by his former coach, Bob Knight, is 155-51 over six years at New Mexico. The Lobos are in the NCAA tournament for the third time in four years and their 29 wins are second-most in school history. Alford won 30 in 2009-10.
"I think we have started to put our imprint on our program and we've got things in place to be successful," Alford said. "We have put a great product out there, won games, won championships and now we're trying to take that to another level."

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — With some of their strongest teams in years, New Mexico and New Mexico State are creating quite the NCAA tournament buzz across the state.
Mountain West Conference champion and No. 3 seed New Mexico (29-5) is in the West Regional and will face No. 14 seed Harvard (19-9), the Ivy League champions, on Thursday in Salt Lake City. Behind Kendall Williams and Tony Snell, this could be the best Lobos squad since Norm Ellenberger’s teams in the late 1970s.
Meanwhile in the southern part of the state, residents are celebrating No. 13 New Mexico State (24-10), the champion of the Western Athletic Conference.
The Aggies defeated Texas-Arlington in the WAC tournament championship game and face fourth-seeded Saint Louis (27-6) in their Midwest Regional opener in San Jose, Calif.
“It’s amazing. The whole state is excited,” said 33-year-old Todd Johnson, owner of Dos Hermanos burrito shop in Albuquerque. “It’s bringing us all together.”

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — New Mexico earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA West Region after winning the tough Mountain West Conference regular season and tournament titles.
The Lobos (29-5) will face No. 14 seed Harvard (19-9), the Ivy League champions, on Thursday in Salt Lake City.
Behind co-stars Kendall Williams and Tony Snell, this is the best team the Lobos have had since Norm Ellenberger's teams in the late 1970s.
Coach Steve Alford's team finally feels it can make a deep run in the NCAA tournament after losing 59-56 to Louisville in the third round last season.
All season, Snell and Williams took turns starring for the Lobos, who were joined by Mountain West members Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State and UNLV in the NCAA tournament.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Aggies passed their chemistry test.
New Mexico State fended off a furious rally by UT Arlington with less than two minutes left, getting 16 points, 15 rebounds and five block shots from Sim Bhullar to pull out a 64-55 victory over the Mavericks on Saturday night for its second straight Western Athletic Conference championship and automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
Holding a 32-30 lead at halftime, New Mexico State (24-10) used a 19-8 run to open its biggest lead of the game, going up 51-38 with 11:27 left.
The Mavericks wouldn't go quietly.
Kevin Butler's 3-pointer from the top of the key with 10:17 left sparked a 15-5 run that pulled UT Arlington within three points with 1:55 remaining.
But Terrel de Rouen's soft jumper just outside the key with 1:17 remaining halted the Mavericks' surge and shifted the momentum back toward the Aggies, who closed the game on an 8-2 run to seal the win.